City Car 119

Volkswagen in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (South Africa) forced to stop the production caused by workers who doesn’t want to work. It happened for the second time in less than a month. The first action is on 13 August.

The workers demanded higher wages to 15 percent from the current position. In fact, the producers had agreed to raise the 6 percent. These conditions make the new model Polo supplies destined for export markets, such as England, Ireland, Australia, New Zeland, Malaysia and Singapore had become disturbed.

The company feel very much regret for this incident. In fact, the company is working to restore the previous eight days incident which affects the number of shipping units to customers.

Another manufacturer, Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors (GM) have not announced about other negative impact which is caused by this incident. However, GM confirmed the long protracted conditions will create conditions worse until the cessation of manufacturing activities.

Such actions would affect the industrial activities, as well as sending a negative message related to the labor issues in South Africa,” GM said in their official statement.

Besides China and India, South Africa is seen by Volkswagen AG (VW) as a promising future market, besides maybe due to the cheap workers and thereby expanding its commitment in South Africa.

Therefore, the German car manufacturer plans to inject fresh funds 61.8 million U.S. dollars (USD 565.3 billion) to their factory in Uitenhage.

In addition, there are additional funds 28.4 million U.S. dollars to build a distribution center in Centurion, near Pretoria. Thus, all components of production and VW will be centered on that location before being sent to the dealer.

The whole plan is a realization of the manufacturer’s global strategy, one in South Africa until 2018 to come. In fact, since 2006 past VW has poured a total investment in South Africa reached 618 million U.S. dollars. Read the rest of this entry »